To Love and to Cherish
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: Dorea Black is about to be married - and she highly doubts that she would like that. One-shot.


_An aura of mystery surrounds her_

_The lady in brightest white…_

Dorea closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then opened them again.

It did not help. She was still staring at her reflection wordlessly, trying to accept the way she looked like. And, generally, accept the fact that she was about to be married.

Her dress was all lace and satin, falling down to her ankles. The décolletage was low and there was a small, almost unnoticeably thin ribbon right under her chest, and yet there were sleeves – or, well, something that resembled them – that reached her neck on the back and still was too short on the front. Dorea had failed to realise why her mother wouldn't let her dress in what she liked, but had to have her wearing an actual wedding dress – it was like if Violetta was mocking her daughter with all that bows and dresses and lace when she wanted just to be left alone and certainly did _not _want to get married.

Her hair was even worse. Her coiffure was some sort of a knot, but Dorea's sister – Cassiopeia – hadn't know what to do with so much hair and had left a few dark curls fall around her little sister's face. She had even placed a big flower in her hair – a rose, and had told her that pink roses symbolise grace and happiness. And that was what Dorea was supposed to be on her wedding, wasn't she, graceful and happy. Nonsense.

With a small tingle of guilt for thinking bad things of her older sister, Dorea looked down at her shoes and scowled. How was she supposed to walk in these at all? They were as white as the dress, with small heels and a ribbon on the front and looked extremely uncomfortable when Violetta had picked them up, but felt even worse now, on Dorea's feet.

"Dorea?"

The woman winced; it was her mother calling her. She sighed softly. "Yes, Mother?"

"Are you ready?"

"In a minute."

"Hurry up, stupid girl. Everyone is waiting."

Dorea did not care to answer to this and, if she could judge by the sounds of steps slowly getting away from the door, her mother didn't need one. She just sat back on her bed, overwhelmed by desperation once more.

She was actually getting married. She had never wanted that. She hadn't bothered to discuss this with her parents or her sister when she was younger – Dorea had been too ashamed to ask anything about it when it came to Cygnus and Violetta, and her sister was never one to talk to when it came to marriage.

When Pollux was married to Irma, however, Dorea had started to worry that soon, their parents would want her to marry too. She had went to her older brother and asked him if he was happy.

"Of course I am." Pollux had said back then, smiling and bringing his wife and his children – a girl named Walburga, and two brothers – Alphard and Cygnus, the latter named after Pollux and Dorea's father – and telling her that "well, one day soon, you'll experience it too."

Dorea had been naïve enough to believe him and to start waiting impatiently for her parents to find her a suitor. She had always imagined someone strong, beautiful and kind, a respectable and nice man, someone who could suit her perfectly.

And what she got? Charlus Potter.

_He is pureblood and everything you can ask for, Dorea. And very handsome, if I may add. Everyone says that._ Violetta had told her firmly when the girl had tried to complain, protest and even cry when needed, against her marriage to said man. _Be a good girl and act good when he comes for tea, will you? You don't need to bring more shame to the family. As if Marius hadn't done enough…_ Somewhere by this point her mother had shaken her head in despair and left her daughter alone.

Ah, Marius – Dorea's other brother. It would be definitely his turn to be married now if it wasn't for his own flaws. A Black to turn out to be a Squib – who had heard of such a thing at all? But it had happened, and he had been disowned.

And Dorea had to be the one her parents had to take all their anger upon.

She felt the sudden need to stand up from the bed and smack something really, really badly – maybe that stupid mirror that she was pointlessly staring at for almost two hours now. It would certainly make her feel better, she thought, her hands curling into angry fists.

But then again, it would not change anything either.

Dorea stood up from where she was sitting and walked out of the room when she heard the name of the groom and the best man being announced. Her father was standing outside the door, scowling a bit at her.

"What took you so long?" he asked, seeming irritated and avoiding looking at her dress. But, when he apparently couldn't stop himself from making a comment, he added "And what kind of clothing is that, if I may ask?"

"I chose it with Mother." Dorea said defensively, hoping she could hide herself from his pointed stare in any way. She crossed her arms over her chest – it was the best she could do right now. "And I like it." she hurried to say, even if it was half a lie.

"It looks like something a Muggle bride would wear." Cygnus pointed out with slight repulsion in his voice, though he tried to hide it – Dorea wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to seem rude or because he actually didn't want to hurt her feelings by insulting her dress.

"Yes." She answered calmly, meeting his gaze and squinting a bit, reminding herself that if marriage was useful in any way, one of its good sides was that her father would have no power over her in less than an hour. "That's their fashion now. And, if you would want to know, Charlus can be really fond of Muggles. He will like it, and it's all about him liking me after all, isn't it?"

The man raised his eyebrows and Dorea felt delightful for a second, seeing that Cygnus had realised that he had chosen his daughter a husband who liked Muggles in any way. Yes, she did not like Charlus either. But she would be damned if she would say that to her father.

As soon as they were out in the garden, where the wedding was supposed to take place, Dorea realised how many people were actually here. Once again, she felt the urge to hide somewhere instead of walk and consciously ruin her life in front of all these people, but she ignored it.

It seemed as it took forever for her to get to the arch of flowers where Charlus was waiting for her. She stopped gracefully, looking straight into his hazel eyes, and wished to find there a man that she would like to spend the rest of her life with.

"Are you all right?" he asked quietly, his brow furrowing in concern. When she did not react, he seemed to panic. "If you want, I'll tell them to call off the whole thing and wait until you're feeling better again."

_He cared about her. _Dorea couldn't believe that Charlus actually cared if she was all right or not. Back in school they barely ever talked to each other, and now he was asking how she was feeling as if he was really concerned.

She nodded slowly. "Yes." She breathed. "I'm fine." They both turned to the wizard sent from the Ministry when he started speaking.

"We're gathered here today…."

The bride tried to distract herself from the whole thing until it came time to actually answer the question when she was being asked. Her chance was now. If she wanted to run away or just… do anything else instead of marrying Charlus, she had to do it now. If she wanted to escape, this was her final chance.

"Have you prepared your vows?"

Charlus nodded shakily and started speaking, though Dorea couldn't hear half of what he was saying.

"I, Charlus Percival Potter, take thee, Dorea Belvina Black, to be my lawful wedded Wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth."

Her first thought was that, despite the fact that her parents had forced her to remember the same thing before the wedding, she could barely understand a word from it. And when that rather pointless thought left her mind, she actually realised what she was just told. There was no turning back now.

Dorea felt as if something was gagging her, but tried to hide her helplessness. Instead, she shot her mother a panicked look. Violetta answered by glaring at her. The young woman got the message pretty well. _Don't you dare do anything stupid._

Feeling that the guests were starting to get nervous from the silence – which had gotten positively too long – she started speaking.

"I, Dorea Belvina Black…" her voice raised and trembled, then died, but she took a deep breath through gritted teeth, and started speaking again. "…take thee, Charlus Percival Potter, to be my lawful wedded Husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth."

They exchanged the rings in less than a minute, which was the time needed for Dorea to understand what exactly she had just done. She wanted to throw herself off a cliff for her stupidity – how could she do it? Oh, but she had to run away… It would be better…. Certainly preferable than spending her life with a man like him…

She reminded to herself how honest he looked just a few minutes ago, when he was saying his wedding vows, staring straight into her eyes with his wide hazel ones, and couldn't help but think: _it could have been worse._

So when the wizard said "You may now kiss the bride.", Dorea let Charlus kiss her, despite the fact that she still didn't trust him entirely.

"I love you." He said when they parted again and the guests applauded them and they started taking congratulations from everybody.

Shock pierced through Dorea's body at these words, but she smiled to him without saying anything. She wanted to answer with the same, but she did not wish to lie. Yes, she didn't hate him anymore. She liked him and thought that he was a nice man, but she could not look into his eyes and lie so wholeheartedly by saying that she truly loved him.

Dorea let him hold her hand all the time while they were around the guests on the party that was held after the wedding itself. She kept herself distracted during the official dinner and when she said 'goodbye' to her family and Apparated with Charlus to the castle-like building that was the Potters's place. All the time, there were thousands of thoughts racing through her mind – thoughts of what life she would have to live now and that she was already a wife and also many other things – but during all this time, the moment when Charlus had said 'I love you' kept reminding her of itself and she couldn't forget it.

Even thought she couldn't say the same to him; not if she wanted to be honest.

"I love you." He said again when they first entered his house – and her new home and he leaded her to their bedroom. "I know that you were forced into this – but I asked my parents to ask yours for your hand. I love you, Dorea."

Dorea merely smiled wordlessly at him once again, feeling intensely guilty.

_I will learn to love you too some day, Charlus._

* * *

**Author's notes: I don't even know why, but I'm somewhat proud of this one-shot. I also found out that I like Dorea and Charlus Potter, which is… well, not such a surprise, but still. I hope you like it too and reviews are always appreciated. (:**

**The song I used is _Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean_ by _Nightwish._**

**Oh, and by the way, I know I'm supposed to leave that to people's imagination, but I apparently couldn't describe it decently in the story itself and I can't stop myself now, so... here's exactly what I imagined Dorea to look like on her wedding - weddingo . co . uk / wp-content / uploads / 2008 / 07 / ninashort . jpg**


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